No legal barriers for anti- LGBTQ+ bill- Ntim Fordjour

Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, a leading sponsor of the reintroduced Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, has expressed confidence that the bill now faces no legal or constitutional obstacles that could prevent it from becoming law.

Speaking after the bill’s first reading in Parliament on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, in an interview on Channel One Newsroom, Rev. Fordjour highlighted that, unlike the previous attempt, there will be no delays or legal challenges this time.

He stated that all controversial issues and “grey areas” surrounding the bill have already been resolved by the courts, including the Supreme Court, which ruled that no aspect of the bill contradicts Ghana’s Constitution or international agreements.

“Our optimism stems from the fact that all the grey areas, all the arguments and all the opinions that were controversial, that needed to be settled, that needed a determination to be pronounced upon, all those have gone through various courts all the way to Supreme Court,” he said.

With these legal hurdles cleared, Rev. Fordjour confidently stated that the bill would now proceed without the issues that caused delays in the previous Parliament.

“All those opinions and all those counter arguments have been settled, and the Supreme Court eventually held that no aspects of this bill or provision affront any part of the Constitution, nor does the bill infringe upon any international treaty or convention.”

“For that, any dissenting view that was expressed by any stakeholder has been settled and the matter has been put in perspective without any doubt at all. So it is not expected that there are some outstanding issues to be determined on it for which it should suffer the plethora of legal suits that it did from the beginning. And for that, the expectation is that the processes would rather grind fast for us to be able to pass this bill,” he stated.

The reintroduction of the bill, which criminalises same-sex relationships, LGBTQ+ advocacy, transgender healthcare, and support for LGBTQ+ organisations, follows the lapse of its earlier version after Parliament was dissolved in early 2024. Although that version had been passed by Parliament, it did not receive presidential assent.

The 2025 version of the bill, which is backed by ten MPs, has now passed its first reading in Parliament, with sponsors hopeful that it will be signed into law within the current legislative session.